I don't know if this is the right place for this but here goes. Today I was hit by a van driven by a woman. This afternoon I had a telephone call from Direct Line saying they were accepting liability for the repairs. Now this is the bit I don't understand. They were offering to have the repairs to my Focus carried out and provide me with a service car instead of me going through my insurers. They say it would save me having to pay any excess on my insurance. The question is why would they do this, and if I accept what do I tell my insurers? Any one any comments?

we have just had a similar issue where the women accepted liability...Direct line wanted my brother to pay his excess and claimed you will get it back.
At this point I was thinking why should you pay out your excess on an open and shut case?

after he phoned his legal cover they had it sorted within 10 mins and also stated, no you will not be paying your excess for this! and they made the neccessary phone calls to get it sorted out

so well worth getting in touch with the legal cover folk if you have it.

It's highly likely that because it was a van it would be on fleet insurance and therefore they would try to resolve the matter quickly.
I would still go through your insurance company though, it may take longer to resolve but you would ensure that everything was carried out properly.
IIRC, you are legally obliged to notify your insurance company anyway.

I had this same conversation in June with my insurer.
It boils down to regulation of costs -

If YOUR insurer repairs your car , they know the costs as per their network partners, and can budget nicely.

Take this a step further, if YOUR insurer repairs THEIR car as well, your insurer then gets to budget their repair costs as well. They will then ADD A REPAIR MARK UP and thats what they invoice to the other insurance company.

Now, look at this the other way around - Their company will offer to repair your car as well because it will be cheaper than them getting stung for your own insurance company repair bill plus a mark up.
Or, to put it another way, they can make a margin by billing the higher rate to your insurer instead of your insurer billing them (and your company making the margin)...

In fact my insurer virtually told me off over the phone for NOT telling the 3rd party in my bump to contact them instead of their own insurer.
So, regardless of fault, the insurer wants to do the repairs and bill to someone else.

Sounds good for them, but is it good for you?

ummm - not really - I dont see they'd be inclined to pass that saving / margin onto you once it comes to renewal time

Going through my insurer is like the curates egg, good in parts. They don't do anything it is all farmed out. Most are OK but the dealings I have had with an outfit called Albany Assistance is a nightmare. I'm just about to write a letter of complaint to Tesco Insurance.

A follow up on the subject of car insurance. It is some time since I have had to claim on vehicle insurance, but this one has been an eye opener. I am insured with Tesco Bank and I contacted them regarding a claim. This is a ‘No Fault’ claim as the insurers of the other driver, Direct Line, have accepted liability. From Tesco Insurance I have now had to deal with:Tesco Legal Guard for recovering my uninsured costs. Haven’t had any dealings with them yet as I have not paid any excess, etc. Even these are not dealt by Tesco but by B4 Claims Limited.Andover Ford where the Focus is being repaired. Expected that I would have to deal with the repairer.Albany Assistance Ltd who arrange, note arrange not provide, the courtesy car. The terms and conditions of providing this car are horrendous and carry more clauses than the original Tesco policy!! Help Hire Ltd who actually provides the car.The provision of the car is the one that raised my eye brows. Under my policy Tesco Insurance have a liability to provide me with a courtesy car. It actually turns out that I have to HIRE a car from Help Hire via Albany Assistance and stand the chance that I may have to pay for the hire. Quite how this fits into the terms of my insurance where by Tesco Insurance have a responsibility to provide me with a car I don’t see. Unfortunately my insurance comes up for renewal tomorrow 10 January, as I would have liked to have seen this little process played out to the end before I made that renewal to see how I was finally treated. No wonder insurance costs are so high when there are so many leaches sitting on the back of it.

I agree I was also ina bump in Dec. My fault as i went into the back of another focus. Both my car and his had minor damage. Both ford Focus 02 plates. No air bag set or anything like that. My baby daughter didn't even notice the crash. Minor dame to the front of my car, new headlight and a bumper and front rebar. everything else was fine. Insurance quoted £1900. I was like no way its not that expensive. They said its based on thier own 'repairers' and thats the best they can do. In this case wrote the car off but it all seems like a scam to me. They were giving me quote for parts that didn't even need repaired. No one actually came to see the car. They just had some photo's taken from a local repair garage. How can they assess damage and costs from a photo. I had to tell them about the rebar as none even opended the bonnet.

Not too bothered now as i've spent the money towards a nice little 10 plate focus.

I agree I was also ina bump in Dec. My fault as i went into the back of another focus. Both my car and his had minor damage. Both ford Focus 02 plates. No air bag set or anything like that. My baby daughter didn't even notice the crash. Minor dame to the front of my car, new headlight and a bumper and front rebar. everything else was fine. Insurance quoted £1900. I was like no way its not that expensive. They said its based on thier own 'repairers' and thats the best they can do. In this case wrote the car off but it all seems like a scam to me. They were giving me quote for parts that didn't even need repaired. No one actually came to see the car. They just had some photo's taken from a local repair garage. How can they assess damage and costs from a photo. I had to tell them about the rebar as none even opended the bonnet.

Not too bothered now as i've spent the money towards a nice little 10 plate focus.

Complete opposite to my experience, some old coot came out of a junction into the side of my Discovery and made a mess of the wing (didn't even notice he'd run in me until the horn was beeped...), I thought it was a write off (old Discovery) as a new wing was probably worth more than the vehicle lol, instead it was repaired and ended up with a Dodge Nitro for 3 weeks (probably again in rental cost worth more than the Land Rover).